Focus on East Africa

Highlights from the International Symposium and Exhibition on Agricultural Development in the East Africa Community Partner States.

The Vice President of Uganda (Chief Guest), H.E Edward Ssekandi, visits the IFAD stall at the exhibition

A traditional dance troupe doing Ugandan dances set a
celebratory mood at the high end Serena Hotel in Kampala on the first day of
the International Symposium and
Exhibition on Agricultural Development in the East Africa Community partner
states in Kampala Uganda. The symposium organized by Kilimo Trust in partnership with the East
African Community (EAC) secretariat and ASARECA
focused on the theme “Lessons from the past 50 years and prospects for the
future” because all the EAC member states are around the time of celebrating 50
years of independence. The symposium and exhibition was officially opened by
the Vice President of Uganda, His Excellency Edward Ssekandi, who emphasized the
importance of the East African Common Market in promoting agriculture. “EAC
common market is a good opportunity for building economies of scale…an
opportunity that should be utilized to ensure food security,” said Ssekandi.

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Symposium partners including IFAD, BMGF, CTA and USAID
also made statements. On behalf of the IFAD president, the Country Director for
Burundi, Mr. Hamed Haidara presented a statement in which he highlighted the
importance of smallholder agriculture. “There are unprecedented opportunities to create wealth and
eliminate hunger by developing agriculture. And by agriculture, I mean
smallholder agriculture,” said Haidara.

Haidara Hamed, IFAD Country Director, ESAshares his statement

The well organized symposium and exhibition has
brought many actors in the agriculture sector together – the youth, private
sector, public sector, the donor community, local and international organizations,
and participants from EAC member states of Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and
Rwanda.

Key note speeches and papers on ‘Lessons for East Africa
from Asia and Latin America’, ‘Leap-frogging Agricultural Successes into the
next decade and beyond –issues and lessons from CAADP implementation’, as well
as ‘Agricultural development and food security in East Africa: overview of
challenges and prospects’ were shared. These accentuated the importance of investment
in research and improved technologies for the agriculture sector such as a move
from the hand hoe to mechanized tilling, from rain-fed agriculture to
irrigation, among others, for increased production and productivity. Uma Lele,
one of the speakers, noted that a decline in public investment in agriculture
leads to a directly proportionate decline in investment by the private sector.

The CAADP
presentation highlighted lessons learned from the past ten years, especially, the
need to demonstrate results and impact and harnessing private sector investments
in agriculture. Over all, CAADP is relevant now as it was ten years ago.

some of the IFAD delegates at the symposium
and Exhibition

The afternoon session involved parallel cluster sessions on ‘Production,
Productivity and Market Access’, ‘Knowledge Systems and Business Development’,
and ‘Human Capital, Natural Resources and Policies’. Details from the cluster
discussions will be shared on this space in due course.